Tuesday, May 12, 2009

i am a graduate student.

I woke up at 5am.
I worked on a paper.
I ate some cereal.
I worked on a paper.
I went to class for two hours.
I learned some stuff about statistics.
I think.
I'll find out in my lab on Thursday.

I went downstairs to meet my group.
I signed a petition to bring a PhD's student's family here.
He is from Gaza.
The Israeli government won't let his family out.
Or him in.
He has a daughter that he has never met.
I spent 7 straight hours
finishing and formatting
our final project for my project management class.

Our project was to build a girls' school
in Afghanistan.
In an earthquake zone.
With the threat of an attack from the Taliban.
And the stigma against women's education.
With a budget of $500,000.

I ate some sushi.
The pre-packaged kind.
And a rice krispy treat.
I finished.
I took a five minute breather to write this blog,
and now am about to write that paper
Its due tomorrow.

Eek.

Its a case study about crisis management.
I am using the crisis of HIV and AIDS in South Africa.
And showing
how not
to handle a crisis.

It was 86 degrees outside today.
I love love love
love love
warm weather.

But I was inside,
eating stale sushi,
hypothetically building a school
and thinking,
once again,
about AIDS.

In the midst of my misery,
I secretly loved every minute.

And am so grateful
that I can learn
about what I love.

2 comments:

Emily Boland said...

You are such a good grad student. Seems like not to long ago we laid claim to a table at one Carribou Coffee near campus and cranked through some finals. Miss you, and love reading about your adventures!

Victor said...

It's a honor to do what you love, these days.